Sprint from the hospital bed
The spring breeze blew in through the windows of the inpatient department, carrying a slightly cool warmth, but it couldn't dispel the tension of the second semester of senior year at Qingfan No.1 High School. Even when Xue Su came every day, the review materials in her canvas bag were twice as thick as last month. Opening the cover, the dense annotations were full of words like "high-frequency test points for the college entrance examination" and "must-do practice questions for the final sprint".
Xu Yanchi lay in her hospital bed, a small table propped up in front of her, on which lay math test papers and a notebook of physics mistakes, with an English vocabulary book and a chemistry equations handbook piled up beside her. The pace of the second semester of her senior year was breathtaking. While her classmates were doing practice problems in the classroom until late at night, she kept up with the pace in her hospital bed. Every day, before Song Shi had even returned with breakfast, she would memorize vocabulary by the light from the window, reading each word aloud, even if her voice was as soft as a breath and the end of her words still had a hoarseness from chemotherapy. As soon as she felt a little better after chemotherapy, she would immediately pick up a pen and work on science problems. When calculating the formula for electromagnetic induction, she would draw a diagram of the left-hand rule on the corner of the scratch paper. Before drawing auxiliary lines in solid geometry, she would first mark the idea of "finding the midpoint and constructing the midline" next to the problem. She wrote one scratch paper after another, her fingertips bearing faint red marks from the pen. Even when the pen became stiff from holding it for a long time, she would just move her knuckles a couple of times and continue calculating.
Once, when Xue Su came in, she saw Xu Yanchi frowning at a math derivative problem as soon as she entered. Her pen flew across the scratch paper, oblivious to the stray hairs brushing against her cheeks and the fine beads of sweat on her forehead. "We just went over this problem yesterday. Teacher Li said to be careful of the pitfalls in the domain, especially the premise x∈(0,+∞). I copied the solution steps at the end of my notes and marked the differences from the example problem." Xue Su handed over her notes, watching as Xu Yanchi immediately leaned closer, pointing to the steps in her notes and comparing them with her own calculations. Her eyes shone with focused concentration, and even her breathing became lighter. Xue Su couldn't help but say, "You're even more dedicated than you were in school! Many people in our class do practice problems without checking each step like you do. Xu Yanchi, are you really that competitive?"
Xu Yanchi smiled, not answering Xue Su's comment about "love of involution." She lowered her head again to work on her calculations, the soft, steady sound of her pen gliding across the paper. "I've missed too many classes. Xiao Fuzhou brought the mock exam paper from last time. I looked at the answers, and many of the questions were ones we practiced in class. If I don't catch up, I won't be able to keep up with you in the college entrance exam." Her hands were still trembling slightly, a lingering reaction to chemotherapy. Occasionally, she would write the number "0" crookedly, then immediately erase it and rewrite it. Every step was written neatly—she was afraid of missing a condition or making a mistake and losing points. These densely written characters were her only source of confidence to return to the exam hall at Qingfan No. 1 High School and to finish the same exam paper with her classmates.
At noon, Song Shi brought in a bowl of cooked millet porridge, with a plate of sliced apples beside it. She noticed the test papers still spread out on the small table, with Xu Yanchi bent over reciting chemical equations, her lips moving slightly, her voice soft but clear: "The aluminothermic reaction requires high temperature, producing aluminum oxide and iron, often used for welding rails; there's also esterification, which requires concentrated sulfuric acid as a catalyst and dehydrating agent. Remember to write the reversible symbol..." Song Shi placed the porridge on the bedside table, gently patted her shoulder, and when her fingertips touched her back, she could feel her stiffness from sitting for so long. She said softly, "Drink the porridge first, it'll get fishy if it cools down. The knowledge points won't disappear once you memorize them. You've been memorizing all morning, you should rest a bit."
Xu Yanchi finally looked up, her eyes slightly bloodshot, but she smiled and nodded, folding her chemistry handbook and placing it under the test paper: "Just two more, and I'll finish memorizing this page's equations. Then I'll drink it." She knew Song Shi felt sorry for her seeing her like this—every time she did a long practice session, Song Shi would quietly massage her shoulders, and at night he would fill a hot water bottle and place it next to her hand holding the pen to keep it warm, but she couldn't stop. Her classmates would follow the teacher in the classroom to highlight key points, and Xiao Fuzhou would categorize the science key points into "high-frequency test points," "common mistakes and pitfalls," and "problem-solving techniques," and have Xue Su bring them on time; the homeroom teacher would call every week, saying, "I've saved a seat for you in the class, by the window, your favorite seat before." These people's concern, like scattered lights, became the motivation for her to keep going.
One night, Song Shi got up to cover her with a blanket and found her still doing practice problems by the light of the bedside lamp. She had completed most of the physics test on the small table, and the draft paper next to her was covered with force analysis diagrams. Fine beads of sweat clung to her forehead, sliding down her cheeks to her chin, untouched. "Why aren't you asleep yet? It's almost one o'clock," Song Shi said softly, careful not to interrupt her train of thought, and reached out to wipe the sweat from her brow.
Xu Yanchi looked up, rubbing her sore eyes, the corners of which were a little red, but she still gripped her pen, the tip still hovering beside the step of "determining the direction of friction": "I finally got this mechanics problem wrong. I used the whole-system method just now, but the result didn't match the options. I want to try the isolation method again. I must have missed something when analyzing the forces." Her voice was a little tired, but she showed no sign of giving up. Her fingers lightly tapped the diagram on the test paper: "Mom, I want to take the college entrance exam with Xue Su and Xiao Fuzhou. I want to sit in the exam hall and answer the same test paper as them. Even if I don't get into the best university, I want to finish that exam myself and not have any regrets."
Looking into her daughter's eyes, which held stubbornness, expectation, and an undisguised longing, Song Shi felt a mix of sadness and warmth in her heart. She went over and helped Xu Yanchi move the small table aside, then gently helped her lie down and covered her shoulders with the blanket. "Okay, let's try, but you also need to sleep. If you're too weak, how will you finish those exam papers? Leave this question for now, and do it when you're more awake tomorrow morning. Maybe you'll figure it out after a while." Xu Yanchi then put down her pen, obediently lay down, and before closing her eyes, she reminded her, "Mom, wake me up at six tomorrow morning. I want to memorize the English essay template while my mind is still clear."
The soft light from the bedside lamp fell on Xu Yanchi's face and onto the open study materials—the corners of the math test were neatly pressed, Xiao Fuzhou's problem-solving tips were pasted on the physics error notebook, and Xue Su's comics were tucked into the English vocabulary book, to prevent her from getting bored with memorizing. Song Shi sat by the bed, watching her daughter sleep soundly, her eyelashes fluttering gently, as if she were still pondering the problems in her dreams. She quietly wiped away a tear. In the final sprint of senior year, while others walked in bright classrooms, with teachers explaining and classmates discussing, her daughter crawled on her hospital bed, leaning against a desk lamp and a stack of materials, catching up stroke by stroke. But even so, the light in her daughter's eyes never dimmed. She gently put the test papers away and folded them on the bedside table, secretly hoping that her daughter would get better soon, that she could walk into the examination hall of Qingfan No. 1 High School, hold a pen, and finish the exam that she had been looking forward to for so long, completing this sprint that she herself was persevering in from her hospital bed.
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